Two ministers left out as Kenyatta reshuffles cabinet

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has sent home two ministers in a cabinet reshuffle.

In a televised State of the Nation Address on Tuesday, the president dropped Agriculture Cabinet secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri and replaced him with Peter Munya while Henry Rotich was replaced by Ukur Yattani as National Treasury boss.

The president, however, did not make any reference to the two in his speech.

The president moved CSs Rachel Omamo from Defence to Foreign Affairs, Sicily Kariuki from Health to Water, Monica Juma from Foreign Affairs to Defence and Simon Chelugui from Water to Labour.

The Head of State also reassigned Mr Joe Okudo as Sports principal secretary, Dr Chris Kiptoo (principal secretary for environment and forestry), Dr Kevit Desai (principal secretary for East Africa Community) and Dr Margaret Mwakima (Principal secretary for regional development).

Mr Rotich exit comes as he faces corruption charges, where he and former Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge are accused of inflating the cost of constructing two water dams.

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The two officials were among more than 10 suspects who were charged on July 23, 2019 with multiple counts, including abuse of office, conspiracy to commit an economic crime, conferring a benefit and single sourcing for the insurance of the projects, and approving payment contrary to the law.

The court heard that they engaged in a project for the construction of Kimwarer multipurpose dam in Rift Valley, without prior planning.

During his speech, Mr Kenyatta once again reminded his ministers and civil servants that it is time to work and deliver on ruling Jubilee Party’s promises as he reiterated his warning against politicking.

“I want the economy to be a more important focus than politics. And this is because our practice throughout our history has been to pursue the political kingdom as opposed to the economic kingdom. But that focus has been wrong,” he said.

“It is the reason we still have remnants of poverty despite the years of progress we have made.”